Scouts: Prof is taking a much deserved day off, so you are sadly stuck with just me today. But no fear, the better half of this blog will return tomorrow! Until then, let’s all form up at the cursing line to your left! Women and children are highly encouraged to join in on the fracking fun!
Nationals 0, Rays 1 – Scouts: Holy shit, things are bad for the Nats right now. Of course there is plenty of time to turn the ship around, but homies can’t buy a win and are running out of bad teams to match up against. There was some drama at the very, very end of the game. I watched the video but I still have no clue what the fuck it was all about. Someguy, can you fill me in? Best I can tell Sergio Romo was acting like a little bitch.
Orioles 2, Marines 3 – Scouts: YAWN. Nothing really interesting happened in this game, but it’s the Orioles, what do you expect? Your and mine favorite All-Star contender, Chris Davis went 0-3 with 3 strikeouts. Kyle Seager keyed the comeback with a two-run single in the 8th. Fuck yeah!
Yankees 6, Phillies 0 – Scouts: Luis Severino threw 7 shutout innings, and became the first pitcher to reach 12 wins. Jake Arrieta gave up two homers and 6 runs and now supports a 3.54 ERA to go with a 5-6 record. Shit.
D-Backs 5, Marlins 3 – Scouts: Will Arizona give up enough to pick up Manny Machado? If so, it would certainly make things interesting in the West. Just do it damnit!
Angels 1, Red Sox 9 – Scouts: Jackie Bradly Jr. knocked in 4 runners, and was responsible for one of Boston’s 4 homers in the game. My word L.A. you sure have turned into quite the shit-show.
A’s 9, Tigers 7 – Scouts: Histo, what the hell girl? Your boys have GOT to be better than this shit. Detroit jumped ahead to a early 6-0 lead, then just took a nap on the field as Oakland came storming back. Not good.
Pirates 3, Mets 4 F/10 – Scouts: Oh hell’s bells. Wilmer Flores singled in the 10th to walk it off for the terrible, horrible, no good Mets. The Mets also announced this would be the final game for GM Sandy Alderson who is taking a leave of absence for an undisclosed medical issue. Get better soon Sandy!
Reds 5, Braves 3 – Scouts: Jesus Fuck Atlanta! First you lose two of three vs Baltimore, now you get smoked by Matt Fucking Harvey. Get your shit together! You are the choosen ones damnit!
Padres 3, Rangers 2 – Scouts: Don’t you just fucking hate it when your team blows a 2 – nil lead in the 8th? You are just cruising along, enjoying a fine game, about to head to bed, and then Jake Diekman comes in and gives up 3 runs on 3 hits and you can’t figure out what the hell just happened.
Royals 1, Brewers 5 – Scouts: My God, Kansas City’s offense sucks ass. Freddy Peralta struck out 10 over 7 innings, giving up just a single hit.
Twins 4, White Sox 8 – Scouts: Dude, Minnesota really needs to stop losing to shit teams like the White Sox. Things were looking pretty good for the first half, then the wheels came off the truck and the Twins gave up 6 runs in Chicago’s final three innings.
Blue Jays 0, Astros 7 – Scouts: Look at you Charlie Morton! What a fucking guy! 13 strikeouts, 7 shut out innings, and he did it all without the run support which didn’t really show up until Houston piled on 5 insurance runs on in the 8th. Ryan Boruki pitched pretty good in his MLB debut, but well, dude, you just got thrown to the wolves on that one.
Spiders 2, Cardinals 11 – Scouts: Holy Shit Snacks what a beating this one was. Corey Kluber just took a whoopin, lasting just 1.2 innings, allowing 6 runs on 6 hits. Damn son.
Cubs 9, Dodgers 4 – Scouts: Javier Baez decided he didn’t like to fucking lose anymore and he was going to do something about it. So he racked up 4 hits on 5 at-bats, including two dongs and 5 RBI. This Girl was on FIRE!
Rockies 2, Giants 3 – Scouts: The big play in this game was a bases-loaded walk by Gorkys Hernandez in the 8th. I got nothing for ya here.
Fan Interference 
Regarding the contretemps at the end of the Rays/Nats proceedings, what we have here is another perceived violation of the sport’s hallowed Unwritten Rules with a side of delayed enforcement of same, although not quite Strickland-level grudge holding…
The source of the kerfuffle is June 6, 2018, a day game at Nats Park between these same two sides. As the bottom of the sixth dawned, the Nats already held a comfortable 6-2 lead, and seemed on their way to victory. This was a different Nats team than the one we’ve seen recently, though; this version was in first place, and thought that the only reason to score six runs was to make it easier to score seven. As the inning proceeded, the Nats increased their lead to 9-2, with the ninth run scoring on a Michael A. Taylor single to right, a play on which Taylor took second.
Having set the scene for you, dear reader, I now must pause to give you time to clutch your pearls and walk slowly over to your fainting couch, because what came next will live in baseball infamy for all time as one of the most dastardly deeds ever perpetrated on our fair sport.
Are you ready?
It was at this point in the game that Michael A. Taylor had the unmitigated gall to steal third base, and then scamper home like a thief in the night when the throw sailed into left field, much to the horror of the ghosts of Doubleday, Landis, Cobb, and all others who came before him.
Such an affront to the game’s ideals could not be left unpunished, of course, but the Rays were indeed a patient bunch, and waited until the teams renewal of hostilities this week to mete out their revenge. Their first attempt at doing so came on Monday night, when Matt Duffy stole second base in the second inning of a game that the Rays already lead 6-0, but the Nats let the event pass unremarked upon; given that the Nats hadn’t gotten to their hotel rooms in Tampa until 5:30AM on Monday (thanks, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball!) and given that they were already absorbing a beating, it’s quite possible that they didn’t even notice the steal or remember that they were supposed to be angered by it. However, it wasn’t enough for the Rays to exact unnoticed revenge, and so when Romo struck out Taylor to end yesterday’s game, he had to ensure that the message got across by loudly announcing all that Taylor had done wrong, and letting him know in no uncertain terms that such things will not be tolerated going forward.
In other news, Max Scherzer has now been saddled with four losses, because the rules of scoring say someone must be tagged with the L when his team loses, and in those four games, he’s yielded seven earned runs (ten total) while his team has scored precisely one.
Somehow the Nats still are four games over .500 and only four games out of first, so if they ever remember how to hit, they’ve got a chance to compete, but it’s been hard to watch this team this month.
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Am I correct in remembering reading in an article about his fanatical work habits, that Scherzer may well be in the process of becoming the first pitcher since Randy Johnson to win the Cy Young award three years in a row?
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Scherzer’s certainly making a case for winning the NL Cy Young award again this year (and perhaps an NL MVP, too). Johnson won four in a row (1999-2002) as did Greg Maddux (1992-95).
Cy Young remains the best pitcher to never win a Cy Young award, of course…
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Cobb woulda stole home.
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Well told, Mr InVA! May I call you Some? The pity is that in our current era of rebuilding teams (using the VietNam war technique of destroying the villiage to save it) no one thinks about the team members. I had a job interview recently and while looking at my resume the interviewer says “Boy! Your company has had a couple of tough years!” Point being our MLB players are among the top 1000 at their profession of a population of billions. And they go home 60% of the time as collective failures. This, I think, has a bad effect on their psyche. Monsters from the id rise to the top and the most mundane and ancient offenses fester inside. Or the manager, and his monsters, feed those monsters in hopes of at least one win.
The basic problem as I see it is the rise of the top and lowering of the bottom. Remember when loosing 100 games was disaster? Winning 100 a point of great pride? How many teams will have triple digits on one or the other side of the – this year?
I have always enjoyed the fact that my team (or their opponent) might win any single game. A timely hit, a timely strikeout, and a game is won or lost. This year our scores are disproportionate. How many teams reached double digit runs in today’s results?
I’m afraid we are now the NBA, or worse the NCAA basketball tournament, where the difference between haves and have nots is so extreme 90% of games are over before they begin. And MLB is wondering why attendance is down? Get a fucking clue – fully one quarter of your teams are not competitive! I don’t mean to get to the Series, I mean to win tonight’s game!
Sorry for the rant folks but this has been bothering me since the fire sale Jeter instituted of the assets belonging to his off-shore investors. The Angels only World Series win was as a wild card, and in the improbable event they reach that mark this year, they will be facing the equivalent of the ’27 NYY three times to gain a title again. I think this must be great for those on top, but it’s bad for about 23 teams (and 23 fan bases).
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When I was a kid my brother and I had a joint fantasy character who sang a song called ‘Sad and Happy Days’. The lyrics went like this
‘Damn Bosom Damn Bosom Damn Bosom Damn Damn Damn
Damn Damn Damn Bosum Damn Bosum Damn’
Need more Bosoms if we’re ever to catch the Phils.
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When Prof comes back, I do want to hear her take on this little nugget:
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I was wondering about that too.
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Turns out he was a guy who’d invented a way to get draft beer to pour faster, and was putting the finishing touches on the installation at Suntrust Park – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/06/28/inventor-who-made-ballpark-beer-flow-freely-pulled-lifeless-from-cooler-at-atlanta-braves-stadium/?utm_term=.77f3381fbaa2
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WE SUCK! WE SUCK! WE SUCK! (to the wave)
Speaking of incivility, it’s a good thing there’s no audio of my game-watching. Mario and Rod are reduced to discussing jheri curls and flat tops because this team SUCKS! I’d enjoy the losers more if earnest ol’ McCann et al weren’t such humdrums. Niko is fun, but they keep trying to make Blastellanos happen. If that’s our contribution to the Some-star Game, I apologize, AL.
On the plus side, the people of Ok made an end run around the govt and passed medical marijuana. Also, the odds the next governor there will be a moderate/centrist went up A LOT last night. They may have reached bottom…unlike the Tigers. Sigh
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Don’t you wish that Jeter had bought the Republican party instead of the Marlins?
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I guess he couldn’t meet Putin’s price.
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Scouts, you need to expand your vocabulary.
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The Tigers just fired Bosio for inappropriate comments! Sadly, that will be the highlight of tonight’s game.
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A note for our beloved professor. Our boy Jake at the Astros is making a run at relevance. Much like Andrelton Simmons, his speed and fielding dictate that he doesn’t have to be a great – or even very good – hitter to stick. But a .570 OPS and a 40+% K-rate will not cut it. I like the guy. I hope he can put it together.
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